By Paul GM Lam: While nothing is ever certain in boxing, it now appears to be the case that a mouth-watering middleweight unification clash between Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin will not take place until the fall next year, leaving space for a tune-up bout for each. Enter Tureano Johnson, 19-1 with 13 KOs, the mandatory challenger for Golovkin’s IBF belt and one of the names that has been mentioned as a possibility for the Kazakh KO artist’s tune-up opponent.
Johnson, a 2008 Bahamian Olympian, is largely unknown to the general public, but a darling of hardcore followers of the sweet science who appreciate his exciting fighting style, accessibility to fans and down-to-earth, ‘keep it real’ attitude. He’s perhaps best-known for a controversial stoppage loss to former Golovkin opponent Curtis Stevens, a fight he had been winning until getting badly rocked in the final round.
Golovkin had, of course, brutalized a brave but overmatched Stevens a couple of months prior to that fight, making a Golovkin-Johnson fight a mismatch on paper. But what does a closer inspection of the facts reveal about Johnson’s chances of becoming boxing’s ultimate spoiler in the coming year should he and Golovkin step into the ring together?
Johnson’s amateur career was not as decorated as Golovkin’s, the 2004 middleweight Olympic silver medallist, but still successful. His skills were honed through training with the Cuban national team, renowned for its amateur success. Since turning pro, he has demonstrated a fan-friendly style characterized by a high activity rate and a willingness to mix it up. Moreover, Johnson is a true student and fan of the sport. Whereas some boxers will openly confess that boxing is just a job for them, boxing is not just a means of making a living for Johnson, rather boxing IS life. You will find him active on social media, sharing his thoughts on fights and fighters with anyone and everyone, from fellow fighters to boxing writers and ordinary fans.
The old adage that styles make fights rings true. Lest we forget, perhaps the stiffest test of Golovkin’s career to date came against Kassim Ouma in 2011, a fighter who shared a number of attributes with Johnson; a great chin, work-rate and the ability to fight at close quarters. Ouma looked fantastic in the early rounds against Golovkin, slipping many of the bigger man’s punches while peppering him with short hooks and uppercuts that left Golovkin noticeably marked up after the fight. By the midpoint stage, he had out-landed Golovkin and was arguably winning the fight. Ultimately, Ouma’s lack of size and punching power let him down as Golovkin absorbed his best blows and gradually wore down the tough-as-nails former junior middleweight title-holder, battering him in the late rounds until the referee pulled the plug in the 10th.
Recent Golovkin victim, Willie Monroe Jr, has remarked how surprised he was at the success he enjoyed against Golovkin on the inside, and there’s no doubt that after getting dropped early Monroe Jr was able to make a fight of it, despite not fighting at what he perceived to be his strongest range. It would appear that Golovkin produces his best work when fighting at mid-range, from where he is able to generate maximum leverage on his punches. Boxing is all about utilizing your strengths and exploiting your opponent’s weaknesses and Johnson has the attributes to exploit these factors to his advantage. He is a lot bigger, stronger and fresher in 2015 than Ouma was in 2011. If he can smother Golovkin’s attack, preventing him from generating maximum leverage on his punches, while landing leather at high volume, it could be an interesting night. Golovkin has demonstrated an iron chin throughout his career, but few opponents have seriously tested his body. If Johnson can keep it up downstairs as well as upstairs, it is possible that he could wear down Golovkin going into the late rounds.
That said there are always two sides to the coin. Although Johnson ate some big shots against Stevens and was clearly winning the fight prior to the referee’s intervention, he was not blowing out the Brooklynite puncher and never seemed to badly hurt him at any point. There’s a good case to make that Johnson’s fight with Stevens was stopped prematurely, but what cannot be denied is that he was genuinely hurt in that final round by Stevens’ last gasp left hook. If Golovkin can connect in the same way, the fight could be over shortly. While Johnson has decent power, he’s not a knockout artist. In his last fight against Eamonn O’Kane which earned him the IBF’s mandatory position, he floored the Irishman down twice in the first round and pounded him for the remaining eleven, landing over 400 punches, but wasn’t able to get him out of there. O’Kane is rugged and game, but more of a high-end domestic fighter than a world title contender. Golovkin is widely regarded as one of the top pound-for-pound boxers today. This will be a gargantuan step up in class for Johnson. We can spend all day theorising about the best strategy to beat Golovkin, but until the two of them step into the ring together, it’s impossible to tell how Johnson is going to react to the beast that’s in front of him.
My hunch is that Johnson won’t be fazed. He faced the bombs of a bona fide middleweight puncher in Stevens without showing any fear. He’s openly said that he wants the fight with Golovkin. When interviewed by ‘The Ring’ recently, he was disarmingly pragmatic. Sure Golovkin has skills, strength and power, he said. But he also has two arms, two legs and a head, like any other man. If and when the fight happens, Golovkin will be the odds-on favourite and deservedly so. But Johnson is no less deserving of a shot at the middleweight crown. You can only beat what’s placed in front of you to reach the front of the sanctioning bodies’ queue and that he has done. He will enter the ring free of the fight fright that has haunted some of Golovkin’s previous opponents and provide him with a different type of stylistic challenge to the one we’ve become accustomed to seeing. This combination has the potential to generate a compelling and entertaining contest for as long as it lasts. And if the back and forth hell with Ouma remains a bad dream for Golovkin, Johnson has the attributes to turn it into a living nightmare for him.
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